Nine 2009

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Where Fellini dared us to race alongside his imagination, Marshall is thuddingly cautious. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: How can a movie starring six Academy Award-winning actors be such a bore? Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This has always been a show about the broads, and how they torment, tantalize, judge and revere the suffering mama's boy. The best way to approach Nine is as a fashion spread rather than an actual story. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: It's all "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." That, my friends, pretty much sums up this silly, formless spectacle. For all its razzle-dazzle and brouhaha, 'Nine' is a bore, fading from memory almost instantly. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Loud, brash, brassy, sexy and sometimes tacky or silly, but always entertaining. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A few vivid performances emerge from the clamor. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Fellini provides a tough point of comparison for anyone, but maybe Nine should have stayed on the stage, where it could benefit from having a medium all to itself. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: There's a lot of high-powered star wattage in Nine, but it never generates much heat. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie is full of risible pontifications about the nature of art but falls well short of capturing the angst of creative frustration. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Perhaps Zero would have been a better name. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: It's a movie about a musical about a movie about a man's inner life -- surely we can eliminate some of the middle men. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's still worth seeing Nine for Day-Lewis's bemused intensity and for the showstopping appearances by Sophia Loren (still looking great), Kate Hudson, Dame Judi Dench (yes, she sings), and Cruz. Read more

Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News: The performances are all outstanding, even better than those in Marshall's Oscar-winning Chicago. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Nine is, if not a grand work, terrifically tasty eye and ear candy. Two numbers -- from somewhat unexpected quarters -- are worth the price of admission alone. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The film suffers from the simple fact that its songs aren't memorable. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Marshall's staging lacks the thrilling unity he brought to Chicago. The numbers, while lively, remain cluttered and stage-bound. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Like he did in Chicago, Marshall films and edits the hell out of the musical numbers, but Nike TV commercials look pretty cool, too. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: You long for the ghost of Lorenz Hart to be unleashed on the whole affair, with a hard blue pencil and a head full of rhymes. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A hugely theatrical, often enjoyable experience. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The numbers are flashy enough to entertain, and the cast appealing enough to appreciate. Just don't expect to fall in love. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The jaw-droppingly awful Nine is the worst Broadway-to- Hollywood transfer since The Producers -- the cinematic equivalent of that movie's show "Springtime for Hitler." Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Onstage, there was so much glamour I couldn't decide whom to concentrate on. In the movie, they're so obnoxious I just wanted them to shut up and go home. The movie is busy, but in their failed homage to Fellini, they've lost his mystery and humor. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Rarely have so many Oscar-winners struggled so strenuously for such meager payoff. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Too often, the narrative portions of Nine feel like bridges to move from one song to the next. In the best musicals, song and dialogue blend seamlessly; that's not always the case here. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: A half-dozen Oscar winners shine in this slick but satisfying musical. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Nine is just plain adrift in its own lack of necessity. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Rob Marshall's flawed but frequently dazzling Nine is a hot-blooded musical fantasia full of song, dance, raging emotion and simmering sexuality. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: John Lennon once said, "There's a great woman behind every idiot." This time, I'm counting seven of them. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: We don't need to see Daniel Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman sing a duet next to a Roman fountain any more than we need to see an elephant pirouette in a tutu, but wouldn't you be crazy to pass up the opportunity to see either? Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Nine expires in every sluggish, graceless scene. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The biggest problem is that the star in the center of this universe is a black hole. Daniel Day-Lewis is arguably the finest actor in the English-speaking world. He's also the least Italian guy imaginable. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Only in its second half does the film start to show a suggestion of coherence. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A fractured film about creative and coital conundrums that is best sampled like an array of Italian gelatos. In other words, don't complain about how it all works, just enjoy the yummy bits. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Only Cotillard, as Guido's long-suffering wife Luisa, is in command of her character whether she's singing, speaking or just staring darts at her philandering mate. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: To give Day-Lewis his due, the actor grounds the film's sillier tendencies in a charming performance of mercurial despair. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Nine should have been called 4A 1/2 because it doesn't come close to the work of the master who inspired it. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Sophisticated, sexy and stylishly decked out, Rob Marshall's disciplined, tightly focused film impresses and amuses as it extravagantly renders the creative crisis of a middle-aged Italian director, circa 1965. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Nine thrashes about in search of "cinema" the way a child thrown into the deep end of a pool flails for a flotation device. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a film within a film about a film within a film, and seems to lose layers of authenticity with each iteration, finally becoming a profoundly alienating experience. Read more